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Staining Maple Plywood

Submitted by gwen on Wed, 06/22/2011 - 00:14

I have finished building Ana's sewing table. Now, I'm at the sanding stage. Soon I'll be ready to stain.
I have never stained anything, so I'm leaning towards a General Finishes gel stain followed by the polyurethane gel sold by Rockler.
Will I need a wood conditioner?
Is there anything I'm overlooking in the finishing process?

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Finishing Support and Advice

tracysmith

Thu, 06/23/2011 - 18:23

Since my only experience with stain has been several different shades of water-based stain from Minwax, I can tell you that water-based conditioner for water-based stains (and oil based for oil based). Check the directions on the can of Gel Stain and see what it says about the use of wood conditioners.

Make sure you lightly sand between the coat of conditioner and your first stain coat and of course make sure you get off all the dust before applying.

Gel is supposed to be the easiest stain medium out there, hopefully you will find that too. Maple is a very nice wood to stain (I've stained plywood too) and the water-based stains turned out nicely. Hopefully you can report back on what you found cause it would be very nice information to have :-) Good luck with your project!!!

bulcaoma (not verified)

Tue, 07/12/2011 - 10:54

I just watched a great youtube video by the woodwhisperer on staining 'blotchy woods'. He suggested using Bullseye Seal Coat, then the Gel Stain by General Finishes that you're talking about. When looking further into it I've decided I'll then finish mine with Arm-R-Seal by General Finishes (rather than their gel stain sealer) since the table will get tons of wear. If you need to see it done like me, here's the link:

http://youtu.be/UjwgaADLr9w

Hope that helps.

Guest (not verified)

Thu, 08/11/2011 - 22:07

Thanks for the advice.
Neat video. I may try that method in the future.
I finished staining and was happy with the gel stain. I am just beginning to apply the top coat.